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The scene, early in this piece, in which the reporter is forced by tear gas into an upper room was a powerful reminder of my experience observing one of many battles over the US military presence between riot police and Chonnam University students in Gwangju during the mid-90s. As I stood on the curb with the cops on my left and the students to my right, a tear gas canister landed at my feet. I retreated into a doorway, up a flight of stairs, and found a room full of people waiting out the fracas. They had lit candles all around, which seemed somehow to lessen the potency of the ambient gas. A useful tip, perhaps, for riot attendees.

I've never seen a tornado, though one of my earliest memories is of my father and a gang of his college students heading off late at night to a nearby village to help find the survivors of a tornado touch-down in Judsonia, Arkansas. 1957. For many years, in my middle adulthood, twisters were a recurring theme in my dreams.

"...who were at least arguably combatants..." Their cases have never been argued.

It is my feeling that if there is potential for abuse in the surveillance business, we should forego it, in it's present manifestation, human nature being what it is. And I can't agree that no rights of citizens, or should I say rather, human beings, are without exceptions.